Clans and Lost Souls
by GW Katrina
Summary: Once upon a time, Minato Namikaze had an older sister named Strife. And not all the Uchiha blood made its home in a hidden village. In a world where Shin-Ra, Wutai, and the Elemental Lands all exist, some bloodlines just draw fate to them.
1. First Time Visits

He could hear his mother laughing softly, and was sure she was laughing at him, but it didn't matter. They were on a trip, and there were all sorts of neat things to look at. Even better, they were going to see his Uncle Minato. His mom always talked about her brother, but Cloud had never gotten to meet him yet. And now he was gonna.

Mom said they were going to go back to where she had lived, a long time ago, before she had met Cloud's dad. His dad couldn't come, he was too busy at work, and he always said Turks were loyal, and that's why he was gone so much. Cloud knew. He was a big kid now, and it didn't make him so unhappy now when the other kids teased him that his dad was gone a lot. Just cause they had lazy, stupid dads who had to stay in Nibelheim because they couldn't do any cool job like his dad did made them all jealous.

None of them had a cool uncle like him, either, though Mom said he couldn't talk about his uncle. She said that people in Nibelheim didn't like ninja that much, which just proved to Cloud how dumb they were. Ninja were cool, and he bet his uncle was the coolest one ever.

"Look, Cloud, there's Konoha."

Head turning so fast that he thought it might fall off for a second, Cloud stared at the walls. A part of his mind was curious what would happen if his head did fall off, and if his uncle could teach him that, cause it would be a neat trick, and the rest of his mind was focused on how big the walls were. They were huuuuuuge, and he leaned back to see the top of them. His mom caught him before he fell over backwards, but he barely noticed.

He continued to look at the walls, even as he heard his mom talking to the guys at the gate, and he looked at them suddenly. "Are you ninja?" he asked excitedly.

One of the men chuckled. "He sounds like your brother, Nidara. Go on. Minato has been bouncing all over the place since your letter got here."

His mom laughed and said something about boys and their toys and showing off the toys, which made the girl ninja, the… he knew this word. The konuichi. That was it. It made the konuichi laugh, then they were through the gate.

It was the neatest place Cloud had ever, ever seen. The buildings were so tall, and he could swear he saw someone jumping from roof to roof without any effort at all.

He wanted to do that someday.

"Hey there. You must be Cloud."

The voice startled him, and Cloud squeaked as he spun around. There was a bigger boy looking at him, and Cloud knew he had to be his uncle. He had the same hair Mom did.

He was kinda disappointed that his uncle was so little. But, still, he was perched on the edge of a roof, looking down at them.

"Minato, get down here and give me a hug."

With a cheerful yell, the boy did, launching himself at Cloud's mom, who caught him in a hug. Cloud was trying to figure out how old the boy was. He didn't look very big, but he was really fast. And he had been hanging around on a roof. How cool was that?

Then the other was on the ground, holding his hand out to Cloud. "I'm Minato. That makes me your uncle. And I'm going to be the coolest uncle ever. Okay?"

Cloud was a bit hesitant about taking his hand, but couldn't help grinning and nodding. "Okay," he said shyly.

Keeping a hold of Cloud's hand, the older boy grinned. "Come on! The best ramen in town is this way!"

"Minato!" Yelled Cloud's mom as Cloud was suddenly dragged away by his uncle, the woman moving quickly after them. Cloud grinned, bouncing along after his uncle as the other boy talked up a storm.

He really did have the coolest uncle ever.


	2. Family Legends

If he had heard it once, he had heard it a million times. He wasn't supposed to go out into the jungle alone, there were things out there that would like to munch on him.

Hadn't stopped him so far, and Zack was fairly confident it was one of those things his mom said just to try to keep him from getting his clothing dirty. Like that whole "don't play in the mud" thing. Or "stop wrestling with the chocobo." Silly things like that.

Or...maybe Mom hadn't been so off this time.

Zack had been trying to get a hold of the fruit just out of reach when he had heard the sound. Wasn't a frog, which was one big worry right now, but it was something that probably wouldn't mind making him into a snack. Things like that were -bad-.

The teen didn't recognize the creature that was coming at him, other than it was vaguely bird-like, but that didn't mean anything. There were lots of mutations in the area around the reactor, and he was pretty sure that he didn't want it to bite him.

Letting go of the branch he was hanging from, he dropped, missing a near strike and landing hard on the ground below. The jolt made him stumble, and he barely got out of the way a second time as the bird twisted around in just a moment to come at him again.

Mom was gonna kill him if he got tore up by something weird. She was strange like that. He wasn't too afraid of it, he was pretty fast and could hold his own in the fights that happened around town, but if he came home bloody, he'd never hear the end of it.

The strike was a lot closer this time, and he threw himself sideways, hitting a clump of ferns, cursing as he found a rock in them, and scrambled back to his feet. The thing was getting faster, a glow starting to radiate from the body-scales it had instead of feathers. Figuring that -that- probably wasn't a good sign, Zack darted away, aware it was following him, and gaining fast. And that glow kept getting brighter.

His knife wasn't going to do a bit of good against the monster, and he had no desire to see if his reflexes beat its, so he was happy when he found a stick that looked like it could survive a few thumps on something.

Zack could tell that he wasn't going to outrun the thing. Not here. There were too many things for him to stumble over, too many places where he'd lose the speed he'd need.

So that left scaring it off.

Twisting, he swung at the creature, who gave a startled noise, sounding very much like a chicken. Then it moved to the side, head snapping in to try taking a chunk out of him. And with the teeth he saw, Zack knew it could do it.

The problem seemed to be that he was going to get tired a lot faster than it was, and it was still getting quicker.

Then, something happened.

For a moment, the world slowed, and he couldn't figure out what was going on. All he knew for sure was that he could actually react fast enough for once.

He shifted, avoiding another hit, eyes focusing on it, then he swung. Hard.

There was a crack, and he felt the wood give in his hands. But it seem to have done the trick.

The creature screeched and fell. Claws digging into the ground, it got back up, but instead of coming at him again, it ran back the way they had come, leaving a few feathers floating in the air.

Panting, head hurting, Zack watched as those feathers seem to stay still in the air, barely moving. Then, just as suddenly as everything had slowed, it returned to normal, and the feathers floated to the ground.

Confused, he went to one and picked it up, wondering absently why his eyes itched so bad. There didn't seem to be anything odd about the feather that would make it float like that.

Weird.

Eyeing his surroundings warily, Zack started back home. Later. He'd figure out what had happened later. Maybe ask Mom. She was always full of weird stories about the family. Maybe she'd have an idea.

The idea of asking did cause a bit of a wince. Man, she was going to give him one hell of a lecture for getting into a fight with the wildlife again.

Still, she was going to do that anyway, and he was curious. Mom had always said that some of her family had some cool powers. Not that he had believed her then.

Now, well....

Maybe there was something to it.

And he needed to see when the recruiter from Shin-Ra was coming to town again, anyway.

With a nod to himself, Zack headed back into town.


	3. Violent Eyes

She was the Amazing Super Awesome Yuffie, Most Excellent Ninja Ever.

Which was why Yuffie was never going to admit that she had gotten herself stuck up this tree.

She'd been following what's his name, the nice SOLDIER who didn't seem to mind that she was always kicking his butt. She was awesome, but it was nice when her enemies took defeat with grace. But she had to practice being stealthy, and when he had turned around, she had taken to a tree. And, somehow, gotten stuck.

Caught on something, the ninja in training twisted, trying to free herself. Ignoring the fact that she had just destroyed any chance she had of being stealthy, she thrashed around, huffing as that just seemed to make whatever snagged her hold on harder.

Totally not fair.

"You okay up there?"

Looking down, she scowled down at the SOLDIER. "I'm fine. I'm -training-. So go away."

He quirked a brow at her. "All right then, Treasure Princess." Oooh, he was mocking her! She kicked her shoe at him. He caught it, and smirked. "You lost something."

Yuffie sniffed. "Give that back right now, Zack Fair." She had his name with his number. And she remembered how well it had worked for her mom when she had pulled out full names.

Tossing the shoe into the air and catching it, he just snorted. "Look, kid,"

"Super Ninja Yuffie!"

"Kid, if you need help, just say. I'll be more than happy to help you down so we can continue this bizarre game of tag you are playing at, but...."

His voice trailed off, and the man twisted. After blinking at him in confusion, Yuffie yelped as he leapt up, suddenly on her branch. She didn't know he could jump like that. "Hey, what....?"

Zack looked at her, frowning. "Elemental country ninjas."

Yuffie's mouth snapped shut. The Elemental Countries. She had heard a lot about them. A group of countries to the west of Wutai, where there was even less lifestream on the surface than in Wutai. They didn't use materia over there, which still made her head hurt to think about, but something called chakra. And they had all sorts of weird abilities over there.

Plus, some of the countries didn't like Shin-Ra -or- Wutai. Her father had been getting reports about rogue groups coming in and attacking both sides in an attempt to weaken all of them. Most likely hired by some of the Daimyos of the Countries. Pricks.

As silently as he could, Zack untangled her from whatever had caught her and slipped an arm around her waist. Yuffie would have protested, but she had froze when she had seen the three man team slip through the woods below them. She couldn't tell what headband they were wearing, but they looked big. A lot bigger than her. Even a lot bigger than Zack. Which wasn't good. At all.

Whatever thoughts she had were scattered as Zack tensed, and then they were both flying through the air. She had half a second to register that the place where they had been standing was suddenly full of kunai. Oh, reeeally not good.

Zack hit another tree, and then the ground, bolting, arm still looped around Yuffie's waist. Twisting, she clung to him as best she could, a bit in awe of how fast they were going. She knew that SOLDIERs were dangerous and hard to fight, but she'd never realized why. They were super fast.

Not faster than the other ninjas, it seemed, as Zack went up again, and she saw that they had just missed running headfirst into one of the people after them.

"They can do some sort of thing where they trade places with other objects," she gasped out, clinging harder.

Zack growled. "We don't know that much about them. After the war, probably will learn more."

After the war. Which she knew that Shin-Ra might win. Which meant that they would go after the Elemental Countries.

Suddenly, Yuffie felt like kicking Zack really hard. He was a mean person who wanted to fight her people. But a sudden shift in direction made her focus more on not throwing up. Oooh, that felt bad.

Then they suddenly stopped, and she could hear Zack muttering foul things under his breath. When the man shifted suddenly, she was surprised to find herself being set on a branch. "Stay here," he ordered.

"Hey, I'm...."

Zack's hand caught her chin, and made her meet his eyes. "Yuffie, I'm not kidding. I want you to stay here and stab anyone that gets close, got it? I'm going to have to fight them, and I can't if I have to worry about you, too."

Her mouth hanging open, Yuffie could only stare at him.

"Yuffie!" His voice reminded her of her dad's, and she just nodded slowly.

He grinned at her, and ruffled up her hair. "Good girl. Be the awesome ninja I know you can be and keep yourself safe, all right?"

Unable to speak, a bit startled at the rapid changes in his attitude, Yuffie could only nod. Then Zack was gone.

For a long few moments, she couldn't move, clinging to the tree trunk as she hear the start of a battle down below.

That was Zack. He was trying to fight off three ninjas so they wouldn't kill him or her.

He was trying to protect her.

She didn't need protecting. She was the great ninja Yuffie!

Scrambling down the tree, Yuffie looked around, trying hard to find out where the others were. She wasn't about to let Zack get all the glory for fighting off three Elemental Country nin. Staying in the tree itself, she balanced on the lowest branch, listening hard for what direction the fighting was coming from. It only took a moment to see Zack, who was moving as fast as before, and striking out with that big blade of his to hack at one of the ninjas. For a moment, Yuffie was sure that he was going to miss, then he moved forward, snake-quick, and hit the man solidly in the chest.

There was already blood on his sword.

That meant that two were most likely taken care of.

That Zack had...killed two of them.

It seemed so out of place with the man she considered a playmate that Yuffie froze.

And Zack spun around, and she froze for entirely different reasons.

His eyes were red. Red with black marks.

She knew the legends of eyes like that. The Copy Wheel Eye.

Why did a -SOLDIER- have it?

A startled noise behind her made her jerk around, and she yelped as she realized one of the ninja had been sneaking up on her. From this close, she could see the two rock symbols on his headband. And he wasn't paying a bit of attention to her. Instead, his eyes were focused on Zack behind her.

"Sharingan," he murmured.

Zack sighed. "You know, I had been trying to let you guys live. But nooooo~, you have to attack me and the kid. Still, with only one of you, I'd have told you to go. Killing people isn't fun. Not now. Now you saw the eyes. Mom would whop me upside the head if I let you get away."

There was a sad sound to Zack's voice, and then it was as if he was suddenly there, sword right through the middle of the other man's chest. With a twist, he pulled it free. Sighing, he looked at Yuffie.

Eyes wide, she took a step back. He just killed a guy for seeing the fact that Zack had one of the rarer bloodlines of the Elemental countries.

Zack sighed, and crouched down, holding his hands to his side. "Come on, kid, I'm not going to kill you."

That got a snort, and Yuffie eyed the trees around her. She didn't know how far she could get, but at least she'd put up a fight. She was a ninja after all.

While debating the best escape route, she heard a sigh. It was the most pathetic sound she had ever heard, and it made her look back at Zack.

He looked like a big kicked puppy.

Blinking some at the sudden change, and the fact that his eyes weren't red anymore made something in her stomach calm down. "How do you -do- that?" she asked, a bit surprised. "I mean, you were all boom, bam, I kill you all just a minute ago. Now you look like that dog that lived in the fort that nobody fed."

Zack frowned a bit. "I do not."

"Do too. All sad and puppy eyes and everything."

"Do not."

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too, do too, do tooooo!"

Stomping her foot, Yuffie shook her head. "You are such a dork. I'm not scared of you after all. Not that I ever was," she rapidly backtracked. "You're just a big dorky puppy with scary, scary eyes." Snorting, she turned her nose up. "You owe me treasure for trying to act all scary."

The look he gave her was totally dumbfounded.

"And more treasure so I don't tell anyone about your eyes."

Not that she would, not really. He was -Zack-, and she didn't want mean ninjas coming after him just because of his eyes.

There was a long moment of quiet, and Zack was looking at her very, very closely. Yuffie felt the urge to fidget.

Then he was ruffling her hair. "Come on, kiddo. I can't give you treasure, but how about some ice cream. I think I can swing that."

She brightened. "That sounds good."

Watching as he moved to collect the headbands of the men who had attacked them, Yuffie blinked as he handed her one. "To give to your father. We might be at war, but he should know who all his enemies are."

The other two he tucked away into a pocket. Then, after a minute to clean his sword, he put the blade on his back, and held a hand out to Yuffie. With only a second of hesitation, she took it.

And while she was at it, she stole some gil.

She knew he noticed, and smiled when he let her get away with it anyway.

It was nice that her friend was still her friend.


End file.
